Swansea Channel dredging

Swansea Channel connects Lake Macquarie to the Pacific Ocean and Is the only entrance to the popular boating area in the Hunter region. Lake Macquarie is twice the size of Sydney Harbour and the largest saltwater lake in the Southern Hemisphere.

The history of Swansea Channel indicates that this is not a natural continually open navigational channel into Lake Macquarie. Since 1970 Swansea Channel has been dredged 20 times.

Interventions such as the construction of the Lake Macquarie Entrance Breakwaters in the late 1800s were built to allow larger vessels in for industry purposes.

Due to the dynamic nature of Swansea Channel there will be continual need for interventions such as dredging to maintain the channel.

While there is good access to the lake for the majority of users with boats on trailers that can launch from one of the many boat ramps around the shoreline, maintaining access to the ocean through the narrow Swansea Channel is of major importance to recreational boating in the region, particularly cruising yacht clubs.

Transport for NSW is concurrently working on a number of projects to  investigate and address the short term and long term issues at Swansea Channel. They are as follows:

• Short term – Maintenance dredging work, which will see two dredging campaigns carried out and will remove a total of 30,000 cubic metres and provide a 30 metre wide channel to allow for vessels with draft of up to 2.5 metre.
• Long term – 10 year strategy for Swansea Channel. This will look at long term dredging solutions and seek environmental approvals and licenses for larger dredging campaigns to be undertaken.

Our next steps for upcoming maintenance dredging are:

• Obtain our Environmental Approval which we expect end of May.
• Seek a suitable contractor to complete the dredging work, advertisement closes in 1 June.
•  Award the contract for dredging work. 
• Obtain a Crown Lands Licence to carry out dredging activity. 
• We plan to start dredging this July 2023, subject to approvals and licences being obtained. 

Swansea Channel is a popular area of Lake Macquarie and can become very congested during busy periods, especially during the summer months. With the current depth restriction in the channel vessels are required to transition in a zig zag pattern which, coupled with congestion of vessels, can make navigation challenging.

The channel conditions are monitored by Maritime Boating Safety Officers and navigation markers are regularly moved to reflect current conditions.

The navigation channel may not be passable by all vessels at all times. The channel entrance into Lake Macquarie is highly dynamic and it is incumbent upon vessel masters to assess the conditions for their vessel before undertaking passage through Swansea Channel.

Safe navigation through any channel is ultimately the responsibility of the vessel’s master, taking account of a range of factors including the size of their vessel, weather, tides, water depths and the speed at which they travel.

As part of ongoing monitoring of the channel, we have identified that the “Airforce Channel” which runs east-west between Naru Point and the lake, has been naturally deepening and now provides an alternative navigational route into Lake Macquarie.
 
We will be marking the “Airforce Channel” with navigation markers in December to indicate the temporary additional navigational access into Lake Macquarie.

The “Airforce Channel” has now been marked with appropriate Aids to Navigation and is now operational and will provide temporary additional navigational access to and from Lake Macquarie.

Marine Rescue will broadcast this change via a Securite message on frequency 27MHZ and VHF16. The Australian Hydrographic Office and TfNSW Boating Maps will be updated.

Conditions and depths can change regularly so caution should be used when navigating either channel. Skippers of deep-drafted vessels of more than one metre are advised to carefully plan any trips through this channel, navigate with caution and, if in doubt, avoid the trip entirely. We would also like to remind skippers of their responsibility to assess conditions before negotiating any marine channel.

Conditions and depths in Swansea Channel change regularly. Deep drafted vessels of more than one metre are advised to carefully plan any trips through Swansea Channel, navigate with caution and if in doubt, avoid the trip entirely.